The faculty and students will embark upon a thorough study of the origins and current status of justice in American society. Drawing from an interdisciplinary perspective, we will consider various definitions and theories of justice, review the way justice is carried out in different settings and historical periods and examine the possibility of achieving truly just social institutions. Topics to be considered include: social and environmental justice, just political and economic systems, criminal justice, just healthcare and educational access, representations of justice in media, as well as concepts of equity, fairness and equality. By the end of the academic year we will be able to offer concrete recommendations as to the steps necessary to achieve justice for all in our society.

The theme for fall quarter is identifying the problem and clarifying the question . The first quarter of the program will be used to lay the foundation for the rest of the year, both substantively and in terms of the tools necessary to operate effectively in the learning community. We will explore the concept of justice as it is explicated in theory, history and practice. The concept will be analyzed from both the perspectives of political economy and religion. In seminars, we will read and analyze texts dealing with issues that have historically raised questions of whether justice was achieved. Our work will be supplemented with a series of courses designed to assure literacy with words, numbers and images. Students will have the opportunity to hone their skills in critical reasoning, research and the use of multimedia and computers.

Winter quarter's theme is researching the roots, causes and potential solutions . We will look at specific contemporary issues in justice viewed from a variety of institutional perspectives, most notably justice in education, health care, law, science, government and politics. Students will investigate specific justice issues of interest with the purpose of identifying a particular problem, defining its dimensions, determining its causes and establishing action plans for its remedy.

In the spring, the theme will progress to implementation. The final quarter of the program will be devoted to the design and implementation of projects aimed at addressing the issues of injustice identified in the winter quarter. Seminar groups will combine their efforts to undertake actual programs aimed at assisting the community in righting a current injustice or providing greater justice for the community. The projects may take the form of educational events, publications, multimedia presentations or art installations, as long as they speak to helping the community find higher levels of justice, particularly in terms of service from community institutions. Courses will assist in the successful implementation and evaluation of the student group activities.

It may be that the desire on the part of mainstream feminists to include Indian women, however sincere, represents tokenism just now, because too often Indian people, by being thought of as spiritual ‘mascots' to the American endeavor, are seen more as artifacts than as real people about to speak for ourselves.

Kate Shanley (Assiniboine/Irish), 1982

Stereotypes about Native American women (e.g., squaw, drudge, princess, sexual slave) have plagued Native women since 1492. Ironically, the history of Native women has reflected an extremely different reality. Native women had rights 1,000 years ago that White women would not receive in this country until 1920, after almost a century of serious struggle and protest. These historic rights—equality in voice, land and personal property rights, divorce and child custody rights—have historically empowered Native American women and freed them from the struggle for the rights that White women had to work so hard to gain. This historic difference has permitted Native American women to weigh and consider their responsibilities, to hone their voices and protect the cultural lifeways that have held their respective Native Nations together across the millennia. In particular, the 20th century has produced some of the greatest Native women activists, leaders, writers and wisdom-keepers. Native women in this past century have worked to protect the lands and the natural world, to protect their cultures and languages, to defend Tribal Sovereignty, and to protect the health and well-being of their children and families. But few learn about these Native women who have consistently defied the stereotypes to work for the betterment of their peoples and Nations.

Drawing upon the stories, experiences and writings of such women, we will explore the ways in which leadership is articulated in many Native American communities. We will analyze gender roles in the 20th century and how these roles have been affected by such contradictory influences as colonialism, sexism, racism, empowerment and cultural renewal. We will critique how feminist theory has both served and ignored Native women. Through case studies, autobiography, literature, film and theory we will analyze how Native women have argued for sovereignty and developed agendas that privilege community over individuality. We will also look at how such women have often been cultural mediators. We will explore the activism of 20th-century Native women leaders, particularly in the areas of the environment, the family system, and the law. We will look at how Native women view community and determine how best to serve their community. Control over women's bodies, particularly reproduction, will be examined as we consider forced sterilization determined by race, class and gender.

Students will challenge post-colonial theory that merely deconstructs and move to a consideration of decolonizing practices. We will take as our basic premise that those wishing to know about the history of a particular Native group should write with the purpose of supporting these people today. Students will develop skills as writers and researchers by studying scholarly and imaginative works and by conducting research. We will require extensive reading and writing on these topics. There will be films and guest speakers that reflect important aspects of Indigenous women's experiences. Students will undertake a significant life-history project with Native women.

This coordinated studies program is designed for students who are interested in cross-cultural exploration of the concept of woman and her voice/selfhood. The heterogeneity of women that we encounter in literature, art, cinema, as well as in our daily lives, often makes us wonder if there is any such an entity as the universal woman. Each woman seems to possess her individual identity even when she appears to conform to the socially prescribed women's role.

In this interdisciplinary program, we will explore the concept of woman and her selfhood by examining voices of women in literature, art and philosophy, while comparing them with the images of women presented in cinema and media. These explorations will be conducted through lectures, workshops, film viewing, book and film seminars and critical writings. Our study will adopt an international perspective that will add breadth and depth to our investigation of women as autonomous human beings living in concrete social contexts. Academic inquiry about the concept of woman and her selfhood, examined through literature and film studies, appeals to male as well as female students.  All Evergreen students are welcome in this program.

This is a program for advanced visual art students interested in the particular demands of making small scale art in metalsmithing, jewelrymaking and mixed media sculpture. Working primarily in the fine metals studio, we will combine intensive studio work and critique with readings in contemporary art, related writing assignments and seminar discussion.

Students must be prepared to confront the artist’s and the audience’s experience of small scale artwork while considering such issues as the cultural values associated with scale, miniaturization, packaging and portability, the intensification and exaggeration of form, virtuosity and imagination.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail; for being in a ship is being in jail with the chance of being drowned…A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company. —Samuel Johnson 1759 (from Boswell’s Life of Johnson)

The early 1700s saw the explosion of global trade through sail power. Sail was the supreme new technology of the period, making possible international mercantilism, the creation of empire and the accumulation of wealth necessary to launch industrialism. As peasants were driven off the soil, creating a new class of wage laborers, sailing ships gathered the dispossessed and unemployed and organized them under an authoritarian hierarchy which was the prototype of the industrial factory. Today, most maritime workers still experience comparatively rigid authoritarian power structures when at sea.

Some of the questions which motivate this program are: How have maritime labor conditions historically reflected the larger structural power relations of class, race and gender? What was the role of the technology of long-distance sail in the development of capital? What makes a good leader? What is the role of an individual in a given community?

To find answers to these questions, we will study the history of labor conditions in the age of sail through historical and literary accounts. We will then examine some contemporary regional maritime trades through written accounts and travel to working maritime communities. An extended sailing voyage will introduce students to the experience of maritime work where crowded conditions, lack of comfort and loss of independence will be balanced with beautiful scenery, mastery of basic seamanship skills and discovery of one’s role within a community.

Workshops preparing students for the expedition will include inland navigation, safety at sea, rules of the road, points of sail and organizational theory. Using systems thinking, current ideas in organizational behavior, and the personal experience of our sailing expedition, students will finish this program with self-reflective work leading to a strong appreciation for the complex, dynamic power of working in a group. Workshops and practical application will develop students’ skills in mathematics, basic geometry, map reading and weather.

Students should expect to commit significant time to reading, writing and discussing academically challenging material throughout the program, including during the expedition.

What is nature writing? What is writing in the ecological sciences? Where do the two meet? Nature writing has a long history that began with artists/naturalists in ancient cultures and continues today in the arts and in the ecological sciences separately. We will explore writing about the natural world from the dual perspectives of the ecological scientist and the poet. We will conduct ecological field studies in small working groups to address interesting questions in ecology today and pair these studies with creative nonfiction and poetry works dealing with the same issues and experiences. Through these multiple media, we will explore expression about the human interface with the wild side of the natural world where the ecologists meet the poets. We will read works by nature writers from ancient China to the present day, and discuss their relevance to our own experiences in the natural world in the 21st century. We will pair these writings with technical readings from the scientific literature. We will use a multiple day backpacking trip in the Olympic mountains to capstone our experiences, and as a muse for our writing.

Communication skills will be emphasized in readings as well as writing for scientific and general audiences. We will also practice skills for communicating to a broad public using technical writing, creative nonfiction and poetry. Students will gain skills in using Adobe InDesign , a key publishing tool, that will allow us to compile all original works into a single manuscript by the end of the quarter.